Abstract: The Gigabyte G-Power Pro heatsink is a radical design that works very well at medium to high fan speeds. The heatsink is designed to work on AMD Athlon64 socket 754/939/940, Intel Pentium 4 socket 775/478, and AMD K7 socket 462/A/370 processors.

The Gigabyte G-Power Pro heatsink is a radical design that works very well at medium to high
fan speeds. The heatsink is designed to work on
AMD Athlon64 socket 754/939/940, Intel Pentium 4 socket 775/478, and AMD K7 socket 462/A/370 processors. Basically, the
Gigabyte G-Power Pro can be used with every current and past socket-mounted processor;
though FrostyTech would suggest it is perhaps best suited to CPUs with Integrated
Heat Spreaders (IHS).

The Gigabyte 'GH-PDU21-MF' G-Power Pro heatsink is
comprised of a copper CPU block joined via four nickel-plated copper heatpipes to an
elevated section of stacked aluminum fins. The entire unit is nickel plated
for a uniform silver appearance and for oxidation resistance. The
heatsink comes with all the necessary mounting clips, Gigabyte's LGA775RM retention
frame, a 3.5" bay fan speed controller, thermal compound and printed instruction
booklet. Given the various mounting mechanisms, the manual certainly comes in
handy.

The
heatsinks' large 110mm diameter translucent blue fan is illuminated with
four very bright blue LEDs from below, giving a vibrant look to
the whole package that users with case windows may
appreciate. The fan itself has vented side slits to reduce turbulence, and
decrease overall fan noise.

The Gigabyte G-Power Pro has the appearance
of a low noise heatsink, but that isn't entirely the situation. Noise levels
from the 1700-3200RPM fan vary from 50-72 dBA according to our sound measurements.
When compared to Gigabyte's past entries into the heatsink field (ie.
3D-Cooler,3D-Rocket, and NeonCooler), the G-Power Pro is among the best
performing K8 heatsinks at its slowest fan speed. However, it is also the
loudest with the fan at full RPM.

The Gigabyte G-Power Pro heatsink comes with
three sets of clips to tackle K7, K8, P4, and LGA775 processors. It also
has a fan speed controller to wrangle in its loud
fan.

Elevated Heat Exchanger and
Heatpipes

The design
of the G-Power Pro heatsink is interesting for a couple reasons, largely
because the heatpipes have been used so effectively. The copper block which
mounts to the processor is small, and of just enough mass to spread the heat laterally to each of the four heatpipes.
The base block is covered by a
stainless steel plate for the mounting kit, so downward airflow has little effect
on it.

The four 6mm diameter nickel
plated heatpipes are all exactly the same length, and intersects the 60 or so
stacked aluminum fins at an even spacing. Heat energy is dispersed over the
entire surface of the radiator equally, rather than just to the outer edges
where airflow tends to be highest. The heatpipes use sintered powder wicks, so
the cooler can be installed in any orientation.

Additionally, the aluminum fins
have been nickel plated so that the two surfaces can be soldered together,
improving thermal conductivity between the joints. On top of that, a stubby 2mm
deep plenum has been left between the tips of the fins, which have a knife-edged
profile, and the 92mm fan above. The knife-edge fin tip profile is something
we've actually suggested to Zalman in the past, as it decreases airflow
resistance in an impingement situation. The opposite side of each die-punched
aluminum fin has the standard 90 degree profile.

The exhaust
airflow from the Gigabyte G-Power Pro heatsink serves one further purpose by
cooling adjacent components by he CPU socket as it is expelled. FrostyTech's Test Methodology is outlined in detail here if you would like to know about the parameters under which this heatsink
will be evaluated. Now let's take a
closer look at the Gigabyte G-Power Pro heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and thermal
test results!